Notre Dame actually played a tougher schedule than Alabama -- More reason to believe an upset is on the cards in Miami

Contrary to popular belief Notre Dame had a tougher schedule than Alabama which makes them an even better prospect to beat the spread on January 8th in Florida.

And they went unbeaten unlike the Tide who lost to Texas A&M.

In an excellent article in CSN Chicago J.J. Stankevitz notes that the Irish schedule was definitely tougher as they played fewer patsies, only Boston College and Wake Forest ranked 122nd and 117th respectively.(Wow how BC have fallen)

Alabama on the other hand beat up on Western Kentucky (No. 80), Florida Atlantic (No. 131), Western Carolina (No. 199) and Auburn (No. 83). Alabama played four top-20 opponents in Texas A&M (No. 6, and a loss), Georgia (No. 7), at LSU (No. 11) and Michigan (No. 20).

On the other hand Notre Dame beat No. 8 Stanford, No. 34 BYU, and No. 9 Oklahoma to give them an edge considering Alabama lost to A&M.